Multiple declarators and their initializers may appear together in a single declaration in a comma separated list following the declaration specifier.

A simple example of a pointer declaration is:

char *pch;

The preceding declaration specifies that pch points to an object of type char.

A more complex example is

static unsigned int * const ptr;

The preceding declaration specifies that ptr is a constant pointer to an object of type unsignedint with static storage duration.

The next example shows how multiple pointers are declared and initialized:

static int *p = &i, *q = &j;

In the preceding example, pointers p and q both point to objects of type int and are initialized to the addresses of i and j respectively. The storage class specifier static applies to both pointers.

Example

// pointer.cpp
// compile with: /EHsc
#include <iostream>
int main() {
int i = 1, j = 2; // local variables on the stack
int *p;
// a pointer may be assigned to "point to" the value of
// another variable using the & (address of) operator
p = & j;
// since j was on the stack, this address will be somewhere
// on the stack. Pointers are printed in hex format using
// %p and conventionally marked with 0x.
printf_s("0x%p\n", p);
// The * (indirection operator) can be read as "the value
// pointed to by".
// Since p is pointing to j, this should print "2"
printf_s("0x%p %d\n", p, *p);
// changing j will change the result of the indirection
// operator on p.
j = 7;
printf_s("0x%p %d\n", p, *p );
// The value of j can also be changed through the pointer
// by making an assignment to the dereferenced pointer
*p = 10;
printf_s("j is %d\n", j); // j is now 10
// allocate memory on the heap for an integer,
// initialize to 5
p = new int(5);
// print the pointer and the object pointed to
// the address will be somewhere on the heap
printf_s("0x%p %d\n", p, *p);
// free the memory pointed to by p
delete p;
// At this point, dereferencing p with *p would trigger
// a runtime access violation.
// Pointer arithmetic may be done with an array declared
// on the stack or allocated on the heap with new.
// The increment operator takes into account the size
// of the objects pointed to.
p = new int[5];
for (i = 0; i < 5; i++, p++) {
*p = i * 10;
printf_s("0x%p %d\n", p, *p);
}
// A common expression seen is dereferencing in combination
// with increment or decrement operators, as shown here.
// The indirection operator * takes precedence over the
// increment operator ++.
// These are particularly useful in manipulating char arrays.
char s1[4] = "cat";
char s2[4] = "dog";
char* p1 = s1;
char* p2 = s2;
// the following is a string copy operation
while (*p1++ = *p2++);
// s2 was copied into s1, so now they are both equal to "dog"
printf_s("%s %s", s1, s2);
}